Elango Elavalakan of Sri Lankan – origin has been elected Mayor of Ipswich Borough Council in the United Kingdom.
Labour councillor Elango Elavalakan has taken over the ceremonial role after a unanimous vote at Ipswich Borough Council’s annual meeting.
He is in no doubt what this new role means to him: “Ipswich is my home. This is my home town and it’s a great honour to take on this role.”
Elavalakan is a site engineer and a site manager and after being born and brought up in Sri Lanka, his work has taken him all over the world.
He worked in Africa – in Uganda, and he helped with major projects to rebuild Rwanda after the genocide of the 1990s, before moving to Ipswich and settling here with his wife Manchula in 2006.
He was first elected to Ipswich Borough Council 10 years ago and has become one of the best-known faces in the town.
Unusually he’s already served for a year as deputy mayor to outgoing First Citizen Lynne Mortimer.
The theme of his mayoralty will be “support and well-being” and his charities will be Cancer Support Suffolk and Genesis Orwell Mencap.
Elavalakan says he had always had a strong sense of community and he hoped this would show itself during his mayoralty. (Newswire/ Ipswich Star)